What's the future of SERP Tracking? And... Is SEOMoz's SERP Rank Tracking in compliance with Google Adwords API Terms of Service?
-
My question is:
Is SEOMoz's SERP Rank Tracking in compliance with Google Adwords API Terms of Service?
Background:
The reason I ask is because Raven Tools is now removing their SERP Reporting tool because it uses scraped Google position data.
So, it looks like SEO's will either have to find a new rank tracking tool or find new ways to traffic the effects that rankings have on a website traffic volumes.
For instance, there is a way to get the position a search results was in Google when it was clicked. We could create a secondary profile in Google Analytics for each client and use a custom filter to record the position that the keywords was in when the search result was clicked ( http://www.seomoz.org/blog/show-keyword-position-using-filters-and-advanced-segments )
Or perhaps we'll have to use Google Webmaster Tools' SEO Report to get data somehow ( http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1308626 )
What are your thoughts on this? As you know, ranking data is still a great way to show clients if they are gaining or losing visibility in the search engines. It helps SEO's to report how effective their efforts have been.
Because other ranking software companies uses Adwords API data to show the keyword search volume and advertiser competition of a keyword, they can not or eventually will not be able to use scraped ranking data any more.
But, if another rank tracking tool out there doesn't need to be in compliance with the Adwords API TOS because they don't use that API to show search volume and advertiser competition, they can still technically provide their ranking data and not be violating any TOS, right?
I'm just trying to understand the best way to continue reporting impact of organic keyword rankings on a website.
Does the SEOMoz SERP Tracker comply with Adwords API? Is there another rank tracking tool out there that already is using Average Position data from the GWT SEO Report tool? Should we all just stop reporting rankings to clients altogether?
Scott
-
ANAL, but from my understanding of the US laws (LinkedIn vs. hiQ Labs) and having worked on SerpAPI.com, if the data is public, it's in your rights to scrape it.
-
Where did you read that at? I was not aware of that? Is it the same for analytics?
-
Ah ha. I can see how that wouldn't be nearly as useful.
-
No an average ranking from WMT will not be useful because it is based on broad match not exact match.
-
I saw a tweet from Raven, which basically suggests that they will implement the Google Webmaster Tools rankings data into the reporting tool. Probably that's the best way of presenting keyword rankings, because it shows the average positions. Rankings are being affected by so many factors, that it's difficult to tell which ranking report is the most accurate. Location, search history, logged in personalised data, etc, etc.
An average ranking report from Google Webmaster Tools might be more useful than the ones from Raven or SEOMoz.
-
Just a little followup on this topic on my blog here: http://www.scottofford.com/2012/12/what-is-the-future-of-serp-tracking/ ~ Scott O.
-
I was worried too, so I asked SEOMoz on Twitter: I really hope @__SEOmoz__ won't shut down the rank tracking tool, like Raven Tools did.
and they replied: We currently have no plans to change our data service options & are listening to what our community has to say
-
One of the most important things to me was Raven's ability to do automated reporting as PDF files sent to my clients' inboxes on a monthly basis. That, combined with Traffic reports, etc was a cornerstone of our progress reporting.
I'm not considering abandoning Raven just yet. A lot of our internel processes are tied into Raven and their Content Manager and Link Manager, and other tools they have, but it does make it much more appetizing to go find other viable solutions that can help me manage my Internet Marketing client base.
-
The simple answer is NO. Scraping SERP data is against Google's TOS and they have not given permission/ rights to any company.
The situation with Raven really stinks. In my opinion its Google using its dominant position in search to enforce their rules. And I hope we do not lose access to SEOMoz's Ranking data.
Also, is there a clarity about Google Analytics API? Does that also have the same condition (that you cannot use Google Scraped data)?.
I think this whole thing is counterproductive. Google forcing an SEO SaaS company to change one of its core service - is an example of bullying which reminds me of MS. The easier option would have been to create a rankings API and give it to SEO community. They had a Search API before (which was broken and never worked). And the Google WMT data is unreliable at best. I anticipate more automated search queries to google behind private proxies or more business to companies like AuthorityLabs.
-
Hi Scott. I have never used Raven Tools and am just at the end of their 30 day free trial. I have always used SEOMoz rankings reports and SEO reports to give to my CEO (I am in-house). Honestly, he rarely looks at the rankings and is far more interested in the trend and sources of organic traffic and revenue. I appreciate where he's coming from because if the rankings look great but revenue stinks, then the rankings aren't really worth a hill of beans. I think it's much more valuable for me to identify opportunities and threats more than anything else.
Now that Raven Tools isn't going to have the Rank Tracker or SEMRush info (I was more disappointed about that part actually), are you reconsidering your Raven Tools subscription? Do you think it's still worth the money? The reason I ask is that my free trial ends on December 9th and I've already got approval to upgrade, but am not sure if I want to now. Thoughts?
-
Dana, how do you currently report rankings to your clients or team members? Do you plan on continuing doing it that way or will you try to ween off of using ranking reports in the future?
Scott
-
Hi Dana. I guess SEOmoz doesn't have Adwords API data right directly inline with ranking results, so that could be true. It seems they use the Google Analytics API more than anything.
There is a lot of discussion going around here about this on Raven's announcement:
http://raventools.com/scraped-data/ (127 comments as of the time I posted this reply)
Perhaps someone from SEOmoz knows for sure?
Scott
-
Great question Scott. I was wondering the same thing when I read the notice from Raven Tools this morning. My guess is that this isn't an issue for SEOMoz because they aren't pulling Adwords data in as part of their SEOMoz pro tools reports.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Magento creating odd URL's, no idea why. GWT reporting 404 errors
Hi Mozzes! Problem 1 GWT and Moz, both are reporting approximately one hundred 404 errors for certain URL's. Examples shown below. We have no idea why or how these URL's are being created in Magento. Any hypothesis on the matter would be appreciated. The domain name in question is http://www.artorca.com/ These are valid URL's if /privacy is removed. The first URL is for a product, second for an artist profile and third for a CMS page 1. semi-abstract-landscape/privacy 2. jose-de-la-barra/privacy 3. seller-guide/privacy What may be the source for these URL's? What solution should we implement to fix existing 404's? 301 redirects should be fine? Problem 2 Website pages seem to also be accessible with index.php in the domain name. Example Artorca.com/index.php/URL's. Will this cause a duplicate content issue? Should we implement 301's, canonicals, or just leave as is? Cheers! MozAddict
Moz Pro | | MozAddict0 -
Learn SEOmoz API (and more)?
I'm sorry for this very basic question. The reason why I'm asking is that I wan't to start to use SEOmoz API (and later on Majestic SEO etc.) I have search on the web about API in general, SEOmoz specifically, in Q&A and asked around but:
Moz Pro | | OscarSE
I really can't get my head around what "set of skills" I need to know to be able use the SEOmoz API? And other APIs for that reason. Do I need a programming skills, or just knowledge how each specific API works(+ common sense)? Or both? I'm sorry if this is off topic but the main reason why I'm asking is that I wan't to start to use the SEOmoz API. If you could provide a link or two about where I can start to learn about how this works, I would really appreciate that!0 -
Why Rank Tracker don't work for 2 days?
It dosen't work just keep reloading and i get error "unable to retreave your ranking" or something like that. Anyone have some answear?
Moz Pro | | sasa0370 -
Issue Using MozScape wtih SEOGadet's Link Excel Extension
Howdy Everyone! Since i've seen the MozCon presentation by Richard Baxter at SEOGadget, i've been completely amazed by the links extension for Excel. I tried this morning to give it a try. Unfortunately, I cannot get it working, and was hoping that someone here could help me out. I know it's out of the usual "realm" of questions, but I figure it's worth a try 🙂 I successfully installed the addon and entered my Access id (as "member-xxxxxxxxxx" member is in my id) and the secret key. I then downloaded the "OSE" excel spreadsheet" just to make sure I get all the calls right (as I know the doc works) Once I do this, and enter anything in, I get the "an error occured: the remote server returend an error: 401 unauthorized. I then went into the config file (as the setup doc suggests) and disabled run time caching (or at least set "SEOMOZ_API_use_cache_YN":"N") and the SEOMOZ_API_timeout to 100000 from 60000. I have also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the addin, along with regenerating the MozScape API Key Anyway, i'm not an excel wiz, and would appreciate any help that I could get on this. I'm also about to experiment with SEO Tools For Excel if anywone wants to check that out. Thanks in advance Zach Russell
Moz Pro | | Zachary_Russell0 -
Crawl Diagnostics Shows thousands of 302's from a single url. I'm confused
Hi guys I just ran my first campaign and the crawl diagnostics are showing some results I'm unfamiliar with.. In the warnings section it shows 2,838 redirects.. this is where I want to focus. When I click here it shows 5 redirects per page. When I go to click on page 2, or next page, or any other page than page 1 for that matter... this is where things get confusing. Nothing shows. Downloading the csv reveals that 2,834 of these are all showing: URL: http://www.mydomain.com/401/login.php url: http://www.mydomain.com/401/login.php referrer: http://www.mydomain.com/401/login.php location_header: http://www.mydomain.com/401/login.php I guess I'm just looking for an explanation as to why it's showing so many to the same page and what possible actions can be taken on my part to correct it (if needed). Thanks in advance
Moz Pro | | sethwb0 -
Where do these URL's come from?! (Indexation issues)
We have an international webshop with languages in the URLs. Our URLs are now set up as follows: http://thermalunderwear.eu/eng/category/product Now, we know that there's some kind of strange redirect problem causing problems with our indexation, this is a technical issue that should be fixed soon. But whether this is the cause of some other strange problems, I do not know. I'd be happy with any help/advice/tips. 1. The SEOmoz site crawler starts at http://thermalunderwear.eu. This currently does not yet redirect to http://thermalunderwear.eu/eng like we want it to, but all the links on the page do include the default language code. So all links on the page are http://thermalunderwear.eu/eng/category etc. However, apart from those URLs, the site crawler finds many URLs in the form http://thermalunderwear.eu/category/product etc., so not including the language variable. Where it gets these I do not know, and since these URLs dont exist and the webshop simply shows the homepage, these URLs all have 50+ duplicate titles/content. Why oh why? 2. If I do a Google search for indexed URL's with English as language, I get many results formatted like this: Coldpruf Enthusiast mens thermal shirt - Thermal wear for men ...
Moz Pro | | DocdataCommerce
thermalunderwear.eu/eng/men/coldpruf-enthusiast-mens-thermal-shirt 170+ items – Fine-ribbed longsleeve thermal shirt men from Enthusiast ... {$SCRIPT_NAME} eng/men/coldpruf-enthusiast-mens-the {$ajax_url} http://thermalunderwear.eu/ajax What are those variables doing there? It looks like it's taking something from our Smarty debug console, which is hidden but still active in the source code, but also the ajax URL which is in a completely different location. What is Google trying to show here?0 -
Urgent: Campaign set up 'Select Competitors' errors
Hi. Im setting up my first campaign and Im having issues with step 3: 'Select your competitors to track'. I only want to track 1 competitor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Murphy_(writer) When I enter this and the competitor name into the form provided and click 'continue to next step' it throws an error at me: Darn, there are errors in your form! Don’t worry, Roger can’t feel pain. Competitors domain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ryan_murphy_(writer) may not have a /path after the host Domain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ryan_murphy_(writer) may not have a /path after the host Can anyone help me as this is urgent.
Moz Pro | | RyanSMurphy1 -
About the rankings report in the Pro Dashboard, does it track the ranking of every page on a root domain, or just the home page or whichever page you set up the campaign with?
I noticed that one of the pages on my root domain has a #5 rank for a keyword, yet the ranking report says that there are no results in the top 50. So I am assuming it is only tracking the home page. That is one thing I liked about the Rank Tracker, that it would find any page that was ranking on a root domain. Thanks, Lara
Moz Pro | | larahill0